Damage Control
by ravinraven12
Summary: Hyde figures out why Eric is so worried about Red's drinking. Mentions of child abuse and alcoholism.


Because I like angst. I was watching this show recently and thought about how Eric worried about Red drinking and this kind of came out of it.

Warnings : Mentions of child abuse and alcoholism.

* * *

The first time that anyone notices is when Donna casually asks Eric if he is wearing makeup. He stutters out a negative, denying it, but Kelso gets in close and he can't hide the fact that there is makeup covering his left eye.

It happens again and again, three times his friends find makeup on his face, covering his cheek, his eye or around a corner of his mouth. Something flashes at the back of Hyde's mind, a memory that he had long forgotten but he pushes it away and returns to wrestling with Kelso, Jackie and Donna talking in the background, Eric on the couch, keeping quiet.

Eric had always been quiet, though he did have his moments when he came up with brilliant, if not hair-brained schemes, but lately he was more quiet than usual.

"Do you think something is up with Eric?" Donna asks Hyde one day when Eric had been called upstairs by his mom.

"Nope," he replies and nothing more is said. Eric starts spending more nights at Kelso's place, even tries to stay at Hyde's every so often, but Hyde would never wish that on anyone so tells him no.

It isn't until Hyde moves in that he realizes what is really going on. It happens one night, he and Eric come home late, Eric is panicking so they sneak in as quietly as they can. They creep through the kitchen, Hyde grunting at Eric's whispered 'goodnight' before heading downstairs. As soon as Hyde has settled into his cot, he hears a 'thump' from above him and rolls over, thinking Eric ran into something in the dark. It was quiet for a moment then he hears a shuffling noise, another 'thump', what sounds like a yelp and something crashing to the floor.

Flinging back his covers Hyde makes his way upstairs, assuming that Eric had fallen and was ready to yell but when he enters the family room, it's empty. Cursing, he turns to go back downstairs, willing to yell tomorrow but he hears something above him. Figuring he will head up there and find out if Eric was alright, if so he'll frog him as hard as he can, he ascended the steps. He walks down the hallway as silent as he can, noting the light coming from the door of the bathroom. Peering in through the cracked door, he finds Eric leaning over the sink, his head bowed, his shoulders hunched in on themselves. Hearing sniffling coming from the other boy, he decides to leave, and steps back, causing a board to creak. Eric's head shoots up and his eyes met Hyde's through the mirror and he can't help the gasp that he involuntarily takes.

Eric's right eye is blackening and swelling, his nose is bleeding and his lip is split, the blood from his nose mingling with that of his lip. Hyde doesn't know what to do, Eric didn't have those injuries when they had come in so they had to have happened in the last half hour. Eric, after a moment, tears his gaze from Hyde's, turns and closes the door, but not before Hyde catches a glimpse of shame in his best friends face.

Turning, he makes his way slowly downstairs to the basement and collapses on his cot. Suddenly things make so much sense, the makeup, and the worry about his father's drinking. Hyde remembers when, a couple of weeks ago, Kelso raised his hand for a high-five and Eric had flinched. Eric had played it off like he was afraid Kelso was going to frog him, and no one had thought anything more about it. Lying down, Hyde stares up at the ceiling, feeling like the worst friend anyone could have for not seeing the signs.

The next day, Eric is wearing more makeup, though he can't hide the swollen lip or the swollen eye, though he had tried.

"Are you turning into a girl?" Kelso asks peering closely at Eric's face and the other boy pulls away.

"Hey, leave him alone," Hyde defends, frogging Kelso in the shoulder as hard as he can.

"What was that for?!" Kelso demands, rubbing the spot.

"Because he doesn't want his mom knowing that we were wrestling last night and broke her vase," Hyde went on.

"Wrestling huh?" Kelso asks, grinning stupidly, "like gay wrestling? Is that why Eric is wearing the makeup?" For that comment Hyde frogs him again. "Hyde!"

Hyde turns back to the TV, giving Eric a nod when he looks at him gratefully.

He tries to do damage control for Eric from then on, he helps with the chores, makes sure that they aren't out too late, but it does happen, Eric says something or does something that pisses Red off and it happens again.

Those nights, he waits until the sounds stop before joining Eric in the bathroom, pretending not to see the other boy cleaning himself up, they don't say much, but Eric is grateful he is there.

"Edna brought home this guy once when we were twelve," Hyde says one night, about a month after he's found out what's going on, he's sitting on the toilet lid and Eric is cleaning a new cut on his cheek. "His name was Dirk" he goes on, glancing at the boy next to him. "Anyway, he was a deadbeat, much like most of the guys Edna brought home. She worked two jobs while he sat on his ass and drank our beer and had his friends come over and trash the place. One day I came home from school and the place was a complete mess. So he's there, nearly passed out on the couch, surrounded by beer cans and I'd had it. Edna wouldn't do anything about him so I decided I would, so I started yelling, that I wanted him out of the house, that he was a worthless piece of shit and he wasn't welcome anymore." Here he pauses, not sure why he is telling one of his biggest secrets, but pushes on. "He got up and slugged me, right across the cheek," he continues, touching the place, lost in the memory. "I mean he was drunk nearly out of his mind so it didn't hit too hard, but it still bruised. When my mom came home later that night, I told her what happened, she slapped me, 'for telling lies' she said." He is silent for a long time, thinking that the emotional sting had been worse than the actual one from the slap. Edna has never been a good mother, he knew that but it still was a shock when she struck him, she had never done that before. "That night, she became Edna, I refused to call her mom after that. I started staying away from home, I hated that place, it was another three months before Edna kicked Dirk out for good, but she and I were done."

"Man," Eric says a moment later, "you're such a chick," he's grinning at him and yelps a moment later when Hyde frogs him, before standing when he sees that Eric is done. Eric follows him out of the bathroom and shuts off the light, Hyde heads for the stairs, Eric for his room.

"Hey Hyde," Eric calls quietly and the other boy stops, glancing back, "thanks."

"Now who's the chick?" he replies and Eric grins before resuming his trek to his room.

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So you know, just an angsty blurb that I had to get out of my system


End file.
